Rosa Lady Emma Hamilton - English Shrub Rose

The English rose Lady Emma Hamilton produces flowers of a rather unusual shade for an English rose, in a mix of orange-mandarin with yellow-orange on the underside. The bush is covered with elegant bronze foliage in perfect harmony with the warm hues of its deliciously scented flowers. A healthy, elegant, unique and precious rose for brightening up flower beds.

This musk English rose forms a medium-sized bush, 1.25 m (4ft) tall and 90 cm (35in) wide. It has an upright but bushy habit and offers good repeat flowering. It stands out from most other English roses by the colour of its roses and its foliage. The foliage is bronze to olive green in colour, tinted, veined or edged with purple, gradually evolving towards green over time. It forms a backdrop for very double roses of a rich orange colour with salmon nuances, which are juxtaposed with deep red buds striped with orange. All these colours come together and succeed each other on the bush. This rose also has a powerful fragrance with fruity accents of pear, grape and citrus.

This bush, slightly smaller than others in the same range, is perfect for small gardens and looks stunning in flower beds. Its precious and warm shades harmonise well with the silver foliage of artemisias or stachys, for example, as well as with the blue flowers of bellflowers, delphiniums or salvias. Its elegance stands out against the very dark foliage of yews, purple barberries, or a purple hazelnut.  This rose also adapts very well to cultivation in large pots. Choose a beautiful dark green or grey-blue ceramic to enhance it. If you have enough space, English, Old or Shrub Roses are magnificent planted in groups of three. They will grow together to form 'one' opulent bush that will flower even more generously.

Lady Emma Hamilton was the mistress of Horatio Nelson. It has been two hundred years since Nelson led the British Navy in the Battle of Trafalgar.

Obtained by David Austin in 2005.